


Three

by serpent_and_wyrm



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Clones, Dipper clones, Ghosts, Mystery Shack, over dramatic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-15
Updated: 2014-08-15
Packaged: 2018-02-13 07:10:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2141766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serpent_and_wyrm/pseuds/serpent_and_wyrm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happened to the clones Three and Four after they stole Robby's bike? Will they ever return to the mystery shack?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three

**Author's Note:**

> Just to let you know, this piece is a little bit dramatic. It's the first fan fiction I've written so it's not my best but whatever. Enjoy.

Wind rustled my hair as my friend and I sped down the empty street. Street lamps cast an eerie yellow glow onto the black asphalt. There was no sound except the hiss of the bike’s tires and the steady breathing of Four behind me.   
“Do you think this would be a good place to stop?” I asked over my shoulder. I already knew the answer.  
“Yeah, I think this would be a good place” came the expected reply.  
Four and I pressed our feet against the ground at the exact same time, making the rust-colored bike screech to a stop. We dismounted, unclipped our helmets and leaned the bike and all our gear against a nearby tree. We stood and stared at each other, then at the bike, than back at each other.  
“I guess we’re done, then” said Four.  
“What now?” I asked.  
No answer. Another awkward moment of silence passed between us. It’s hard to talk to someone when you already know exactly what they’re going to say. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Four cleared his throat.   
“Soooooo…” he said, staring at his black shoes that looked just like mine, “let’s go into the woods so Robby won’t see us. Then we can just follow the road back to the shack.”  
“Ok” said I. There was nothing else for me to say.

Leaves and small bushes tore at our socks as we made our way through the dark wood. Black shadows reached for me with their long fingers, but I shook them off. The road was a sliver of dim light in the darkness. Four stopped in his tracks.  
“What was that?” he whispered.  
I stopped next to him, cocking my head and listening. I could faintly hear something, a raspy panting and the soft sound of shoes on asphalt.  
“Robby” I whimpered.  
Together, Four and I tore through the underbrush. Twigs snapped. Four winced as a branch whacked him on the forehead. He fell, hitting the ground with a painful thump.  
“Four!” I cried, kneeling down beside him.  
“Three… Is that you?” he murmured, lifting his head off the ground.  
“Yeah, are you ok?”  
Four nodded. His hat had been knocked off of his head and lay in the dirt, speckled with bits of soil. I dusted it off and handed it to him. Four had leaned himself against a tree. He was a mess, his red shirt and dark blue jacket were covered in brown stains and his bangs had been pushed up so that his big dipper birthmark was clearly visible.   
“Did he see us?” he asked, quietly.  
“No, I don’t think so.”   
This was new for me; Four and I were no longer thinking in sync. Four had asked me a question and I could tell from his voice he had no idea what the answer was. Could our minds finally be drifting apart? Four heaved a relieved sigh.  
“Whew” he said, “that’s good.”  
“We should find a place to rest,” I said, helping Four to his feet, “a place where we don’t have to worry about… rain”  
I shuddered at the thought. Rain… Any sort of liquid was our mortal enemy. While food was perfectly safe and rest was crucial, water was fatal. I’ll give you more details later.   
Four and I stumbled through the forest, looking for shelter. Not only did we not have a place to rest, but also the road had vanished behind the trees, and with it we had lost the chance of returning to whatever was waiting for us back at “home”. An owl hooted somewhere up in the trees, making Four and I jump at the same time. We were lost. Completely lost. And then, to make everything even worse, Four began to act strangely.  
“Something isn’t right,” he whimpered, leaning on my arm with force I didn’t know he had, “we’re being followed.”  
“You mean Robby?” I replied, “No, no one’s following us. Even Robby isn’t stupid enough to chase some kids into a dangerous forest in the middle of the night.”  
“Not Robby… Something else. Dipper…Dipper’s felt this before. He has a memory about it, but I can’t tell where he felt it.”  
I was starting to get spooked.   
“Is it a memory about something from the journal?” I asked.  
“I, I, I think so.”   
I swallowed, hard. What was Four feeling? If what he said was true, why was this thing following us? Suddenly, something caught my eye. It was a tiny glint, perhaps the moon shining on a smooth surface. I blinked, and the light vanished. How strange.  
“Did you see that?” I asked? Four stared at me.  
“See what?” he asked. His voice was kind of shaky.  
“That light, over there. I’m going to check it out.”  
Four nodded an ok, releasing my elbow and swaying back and fourth. I was starting to get nervous about his health. Trying not to think about Four’s mysterious behavior, I fought my way through the short bushes, searching for the light. Then I pushed away a certain bush and there it was. It was like one of those stories Dipper had read but I remembered so clearly. Where the main character is lost in the woods and follows a light, or a sound, or a shadow to safety. Though it was usually a town or city that they found, the bunch of branches that greeted my eyes was enough to make my guts do a happy summersault. The branches were leaned against each other in such a way that they created a small shelter, just big enough for two short children to fit in. Perfect.   
It never crossed my mind that stumbling upon a place like that couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. Nor did I sense the being that floated behind me, with a smile spread upon his transparent face.

When I opened my eyes, the sun had not yet risen. I must have slept for a couple of hours. Moonlight crept through the cracks in the shelter’s roof, covering peacefully sleeping Four with silvery white patches of light. I walked out one end of the shelter, and then stopped to look at the twinkling stars. Somewhere a wolf howled. I shivered despite the warm summer breeze. I wondered why I was awake. Something had woken me up, but what? Why? A strong wind nearly blew my hat away, but I caught it just in time. The faded blue and white fabric rubbed against my palms and it felt good. I turned it over in my hand and spotted the thing that made me different, the thing that stood in my way like an unbreakable barrier, preventing me from ever being normal. It was a shining black 3, written on my hat with a thick, black marker. 3. I was the third of five people, or so I think. It all started with Dipper and his crazy love for a girl named Wendy. Wendy. The name was like a candy on my tongue and I smiled, savoring every letter. Wendy, her long, orange hair blowing in the wind, her hand stretched towards me. Wendy, crouched beside me as I thought of a way to save her and her friends from a monster that lurked just outside. Wendy, who had accepted me… Wait. Those memories were not mine. I had never met the girl I wanted so badly. I’d only seen her for a second. My feelings for her were all Dipper’s, and I shook them out of my head. As I was saying, the first of us was Dipper. The second was named T-  
“Threeeeeeee…”  
I jumped, my train of thought sliced in half.   
“Wh-who said that?” I stuttered.  
The voice came from all around me, closing in on me from all angles. Something about it was familiar, but it echoed so much I couldn’t tell what.   
“Who said that?” I asked again, in a voice that held a little more confidence.   
“Turn around, Three” said the thing.  
Whatever it was, the owner of the voice was standing behind me, right by the mouth of the shelter. Fear started to creep into my throat. It sat there like a black lump, nearly choking me as I swiveled around. What I saw was not at all what I expected. There were two people by the shelter. Only two, and those people were me… and Four.   
Four had made no sound as he exited the shelter. I soon saw why. My friend’s black shoes were suspended a couple of inches off of the ground. My gaze traveled up his body to his face and I almost screamed. Four’s eyes had no pupils, just a blank whiteness that made my skin crawl. He had been right all along. Something had been following us. Now we stood face to face. I had to save Four.  
The thing and I stared at each other for what felt like forever. A memory snaked into my head, squeezing my brain. It was one of Dipper’s, and for the first time, I greeted a thought that wasn’t mine with open arms.  
Wendy and I huddle together in the small cabinet. It was dark, but I could just see her face in the blue light that crept between the cabinet’s doors. She was worried, and maybe even a little scared. I wanted to punch our attacker in the face for frightening her, but I knew I couldn’t. Not while it had my sister. I had to find a logical way to save my friends.  
“All ghosts have a reason,” I thought out loud, “we need to find the pattern. What was everybody doing before the it took them?”  
I went down the list.  
“But it doesn’t make sense!” replied Wendy when I was done, “those are all normal teenage things!  
“Wait, repeat what you just said.”  
“Normal teenage things?”  
An idea popped into my head.  
I pushed open the cabinet and crawled out. Standing up I could see Mabel, her back towards me. Only it wasn’t Mabel. It was something else.  
“Dipper! What are you doing?” shouted Wendy.  
I was going to do something crazy. I was going to do something I never would have done before. But Mabel, Wendy and all of the teenagers who had so stupidly walked into a haunted convenience store in the night needed me, and I wasn’t going to let them down.  
“Hey ghost!” I shouted, “I have something to tell you!”  
Every ghost has a reason. And the ghost who hovered before me was no exception.   
“Why were you following us?” I said in a loud, slightly shaky voice, “why have you taken Four?”  
The ghost looked at me with its blank white eyes, then smiled. It was not the way you would expect a ghost to smile. No, the expression was different, almost comforting, and very familiar.  
“I did scare you, didn’t I?” it said.  
The air above the figure’s head began to shimmer. The transparent form of a boy drifted into focus. His arms were wrapped around Four, keeping him aloft. Four blinked. His eyes had returned to normal, and he looked at me, then down at the ground.  
“Bwah!” he shouted, kicking his legs until one shoe flew off, nearly whacking me in the face, “what’s going on? Where am I? Put me down!”  
I dodged the shoe, trying not to take my eyes off of the ghost boy. He didn’t look surprised by Four’s sudden outburst and gently lay him in a bush. I ran to him, helping him to his feet.   
“Who are you?” I asked, reaching for Four’s shoe.  
“Can’t you tell?” answer the ghost.  
I stared at him. His figure was still a bit blurry, weaving in and out of focus, but he solidified when I came closer. It was like staring at a mirror. The ghost was scrawny, with a head that looked as if it could barely fit on his shoulders and there were visible bags under his large eyes. He wore a red shirt under a navy blue vest, with white socks that had a red stripe circling the top. His shoes were identical to the one I held in my hand, black, laces, white soles. Messy brown hair stuck out from beneath the brim of his blue and white hat. Blue and white hat… There was something different about it. I removed my own hat and popped off Four’s, despite his quiet protests. Dropping the shoe I lifted the two hats until they were aligned with the ghost’s. There were numbers on each one, just above the brim. I switched the hats around, putting them in order from greatest to least. Moonlight made the three numerals shine. 4, 3, 2. 2. The ghost that stood before me, the ghost…  
“What happened, Tyrone?” I asked, my voice shaky, “how did you die?”  
Tyrone was the second one of us. Dipper was the first, I was the third. Paper Jam Dipper came fourth and strangely, Four had been the fifth. You may be wondering about why Four was the fifth. It’s because Paper Jam was not what I would call normal… But that’s not important. The point is that Tyrone had died.   
Tyrone smiled. That was something I hadn’t expected him to do.  
“Probably in the most stupid way possible” he replied, “by drinking a can of soda.”  
“What?”   
“I know, I should have known.”  
Four snatched back his hat, yanking it down towards his ears. He seemed to be recovering from the past 10 minute’s trauma pretty quickly, and he looked grouchy as he pulled on his shoe.  
“Why did you wake us up in the middle of the night?” he huffed.  
“I’m strongest now” Tyrone replied.  
The ghost flicked his wrist and our cozy little shelter collapsed into a pile of sticks. Another wave of his arm it reappeared, looking as if nothing had every happened. I have to admit, I was impressed. But Four’s grumpiness was rubbing off on me, so I replied in an indignant tone, “but why us? Why not Dipper? Why are you even, you know, a ghost? What is your reason?”   
Tyrone didn’t answer. Instead, he just floated in front of us. A streak of orange had appeared in the sky behind him. The light passed through his body like it didn’t exist, coloring my face a rosy hue.   
“No time for explanation” Tyrone said, “I have to bring you back.”  
“Bring us back?” asked Four, with a stunned expression on his dirty face.  
Bring us back… Back where? Back to the shack? Back to the place where I first opened my eyes, back, back, back. And suddenly that was all I could think about. Back, back. I opened my mouth, and then closed it again, accidentally mimicking a beached fish. Words wanted to come out of my mouth, but they were trapped. One wiggled free, slipping between my lips.  
“When?” I stammered.  
Tyrone stared at me. His transparent face had changed from blue tinted to electric green. I heard Four gasp. Everything was turning green, even the distant sunset, even Four’s worried face as he rushed towards me.  
“Three!” he shouted.  
I was beginning to feel light headed. Four’s shape became weird and distorted, waving like a huge, thick snake. He reached for me, but his arm passed through my chest. Then, I could see nothing but black. Far away, someone called my name. Far away, someone shouted, “What have you done with Three?”

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in a room. It was a small room, with a ceiling that sloped steeply upward. Orange, early morning light poured through a triangular window on the other wall. Beside me, the air fizzed and turned a bright shade of green. Suddenly, there stood Four, his eyes squeezed shut and his arms sticking out in front of him as if he had been frozen in the middle of a charge. He opened his eyes, blinked, and returned to normal standing position.  
“Where are we?’ he asked, looking around.  
I had never been here before, though I clearly remembered it. The bookshelves, the closet, the two beds on both ends of the room were all so familiar. It was then that I realized Four and I were not alone. There were people in the beds. One was a girl, with long brown hair and wearing a lavender night grown. Her mouth was full of light blue braces, and they whistled softly as she snored. The other, a boy, was lying with his back to me. Red shirt, black shoes on the floor next to his bed, white socks with a red stripe. It was all too familiar.  
“Four” I whispered, “It’s him. Tyrone sent us back. Look, it’s Dipper.”  
Four tiptoed over and together we looked at the sleeping figure. Dipper stirred, then rolled onto his back. His eyes opened and we stared at each other.

 

Is it true? Were we the last? Were the others all gone?


End file.
